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What Buyers Want. Clear Patterns and Trends.

by Tim Hart

What Buyers Want

In all the recovery of the housing market, there are clear trends developing within the houses that have sold versus the homes that have not. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) conducted a large study to pinpoint on how having a recession followed by a recovery has influenced the lifestyle preferences of home buyers. The survey found the top three items sought for in a home are: energy star appliances, energy efficient laundry rooms, and double sink, French doors, full house technology luxury items. In contrast, buyers do not want: elevators, golf course homes, and laminate countertops.

The housing market as a whole is moving to the periphery of the city centers with only 8% looking to buy within the core of a city which is a return to pre-recession movement. During the height of the recession, urban lifestyles boomed to save in gas prices, transit time, and the living out of town expenses.

The return to the rural/suburb shift of buyer movement means we will be soon seeing a rise in current urban renters looking to buy. Stats show 60% of single-family renters plan to buy within the next five years! “demand for single-family homes, the fastest growing rental category, will be more stable than multi-family demand,” according to the survey findings.

Buyers want energy efficiency and buyers want to buy at an increasing rate beyond what the real estate market has seen in years past. This will be one heck of a year!

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What Home Buyers Want  Buyers Want Cozy, Connected Kitchens Opinion Research Corporation Half of all Renters Spend 30% or More Income on Housing

 ATHOMEINBOZEMAN

 

Future Predictions of the Real Estate Market

by Tim Hart

 

Predictions on Where the Real Estate Market is Going…

A majority of more than 100 economists and real estate experts say that home prices will likely bottom by 2013, according to the Zillow June 2012 Price Expectations Survey. The real estate experts surveyed predict that home prices will fall 0.4 percent this year before inching up by 1.3 percent next year. 

To support their claim, this trend has already begun to happen. The first quarter this year has brought with it a 2% drop in home prices and the expectation is that they will begin their rebound in the next quarter. In fact, appreciation predictions support that the value will increase by 3.5% between 2012 and 2014!

“It’s good to start to see some convergence of expectations among economists, as it lends further support to the claim that a bottom is real,” says Stan Humphries, Zillow’s chief economist. “However, the fact that more than half of respondents believe that the home ownership rate will fall lower should be a sobering reminder that significant challenges remain ahead for the housing market, from negative equity to millions of foreclosed home owners who now have impaired credit, making a return to home ownership harder than it would be otherwise.” 

Source: Zillow Inc.

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Housing Recovery: The Pieces Are There, But the Certainty Isn’t

 

 

 

47% of those who are contained within the age group referred to as Generation Y have proclaimed they plan on purchasing a home within the next five years! (the average public is only at a rate of 29%) Furthermore, 10% of Generation Y say they plan on buying within the year!

It has been the trend that Generation Y members spend more when compared to other generations. Generation Y outspends others on leisure activities (hobbies, video games, electronics, sporting events, and recreational equipment). Because of this, Generation Y also has more debt to pay off compared to most. Specifically troublesome is the student-loan debt at all time highs due to the steep cost of higher education.

I wonder how this will impact the market and how this upcoming generation will change the face of real estate with their unique needs/desires/and changing idea of what their dream homes are.

Source: “Western Union: Gen Y Gives Home Sellers Some Hope,” HousingWire (May 23, 2012)

 

 

Displaying blog entries 1-3 of 3